Why read this: This article gives B1 readers a clear, friendly way into a big idea: food is not only what we eat, it is also family, place and identity. Students meet Stanley Tucci, an actor who travels around Italy for a TV show, and they learn that Italian food is much more than pizza and pasta. The piece also asks a question many teenagers will recognise: why is modern life so worried about how food and bodies should look?
What to notice: Notice how the writer uses one small scene to open a bigger point. The nonna putting more food on the table is one short story, but it stands for a whole culture. Notice the contrast between 'south' and 'north', and between 'a perfect tomato' and a tomato that is not perfect. Pay attention to how Tucci speaks: he uses everyday phrases like 'rolled into one', 'overthink it', 'really messed up' and 'crimes against Italian food'.
Skills practised: Reading for the main idea across short paragraphs. Following a writer's argument when it moves from a personal story to a wider claim. Working out the meaning of fixed phrases such as 'rolled into one', 'al fresco', 'took the reins' and 'stayed with him' from the sentences around them. Comparing two ideas (regional vs. national, perfect vs. imperfect) and using evidence from the text to support a short answer.
Stanley Tucci on Italian Food, Family and Eating Well
In his new TV show, the actor travels across Italy and asks why our relationship with food has gone wrong.
Tap any green word in the article to see its meaning.
In the new season of Tucci in Italy, someone almost always tells Stanley Tucci to eat more. It might be a chef, a whole family putting more food on the table, or, most often, a nonnanonna: Grandmother — 奶奶；外婆（意大利语借词）, an Italian grandmother. I know this feeling well. When I visit my own nonna's house, she sits me at the table at once with enough pasta and bread for ten people. Before I finish my first plate, she is already asking me to take seconds. Any Italian will recognise these moments. For us, food is love, welcome and identityidentity: who or what a person is; the qualities that make someone different from others — 身份；特性 rolled into one: combined into one thing — 合而为一.
The new season comes out on Disney+ on 12 May. Tucci travels across Italy, from Sicily in the south to Sardinia and the far north. He cooks al fresco: in the open air; outdoors — 户外 with local chefs in Sicily, visits busy markets, and shares meals with family-run kitchens. One big idea returns again and again: Italian food is not just pizza and pasta.
“We think we know Italy,” Tucci tells me, “but it is much more mixedmixed: Consisting of different elements or qualities; showing contradictory reactions. — 混合的；好坏参半的 than people think.” Many Italians feel closer to their city or region than to the country as a whole. If you say someone is from Italy, they may answer that they are from Siena, or name their own home city. In Siena, Tucci visits the city's old neighbourhoodsneighbourhood: the area around your home or a particular part of a town — 街区；社区；邻里, called contradascontrada: A historic district or ward of a town or city, especially in Italy — （意大利的）城区，街区, and each one believes its food is the best. In the north, the weather and the mountains shape what people eat. There you find dishes like polenta, which you almost never see in the south.
Tucci loves food, but he is also worried about it. He thinks people today have a broken relationship with eating. He talks about weight loss drugs: medications taken to reduce body weight — 减肥药 and the pressurepressure: The force produced by pressing against something, or the stress and worry caused by having too much to deal with. — 压力 to look a certain way. “We overthinkoverthink: to think or analyze too much — 过度思考；想太多 it,” he says, and the wish to look perfect has “really messedmess: (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin — 搞砸；弄乱 up” how we eat. He feels modern life pushes everything towards being the same: we “want everything to look the same, taste the same and be genericgeneric: Characteristic of or relating to a whole group or class; not specific or branded. — 通用的；一般的；非品牌的”. Tucci wants the opposite. He says we should celebrate the tomato or the onion that does not look perfect. He is also not a food fad: a short-lived eating trend — 流行食尚 / 饮食潮流 person, and he is sad that many people now treattreat: to behave towards someone in a certain way; to give medical care — 对待；治疗 food only as fuelfuel: A substance such as oil, gas, or coal that is burned to produce heat or energy. — 燃料 to fill the bellybelly: The stomach — 胃.
On a small island near Sardinia, Tucci meets a 92-year-old man called Tonino Bertoleoni. Tonino's family has owned the island since 1836, when his great-great-grandfather took the reins: took control or leadership — 接管 / 掌权. Their longlong: Lasting for a great amount of time — 长久的 story, and the meals they shared, stayed with him: remained memorable; left a lasting impression — 令他难忘 long after filmingfilming: The action of the verb to film — 拍摄；摄制 ended.
Near the end of our talk, Tucci lists some “crimes” against Italian food, and the writer agrees with all of them. No pineapple on pizza. No cream in a Carbonara. No crackingcrack: To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress — 敲开；用力弄碎 spaghettispaghetti: A type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings — 意面 before you cook it. And, please, no cappuccinocappuccino: An Italian coffee-based beverage made from espresso and milk that has been steamed and/or frothed — 卡布奇诺（咖啡） after dinner.
In the new season of Tucci in Italy, someone almost always tells Stanley Tucci to eat more. It might be a chef, a whole family putting more food on the table, or, most often, a nonnanonna: Grandmother — 奶奶；外婆（意大利语借词）, an Italian grandmother. I know this feeling well. When I visit my own nonna's house, she sits me at the table at once with enough pasta and bread for ten people. Before I finish my first plate, she is already asking me to take seconds. Any Italian will recognise these moments. For us, food is love, welcome and identityidentity: who or what a person is; the qualities that make someone different from others — 身份；特性 rolled into one: combined into one thing — 合而为一.
The new season comes out on Disney+ on 12 May. Tucci travels across Italy, from Sicily in the south to Sardinia and the far north. He cooks al fresco: in the open air; outdoors — 户外 with local chefs in Sicily, visits busy markets, and shares meals with family-run kitchens. One big idea returns again and again: Italian food is not just pizza and pasta.
“We think we know Italy,” Tucci tells me, “but it is much more mixedmixed: Consisting of different elements or qualities; showing contradictory reactions. — 混合的；好坏参半的 than people think.” Many Italians feel closer to their city or region than to the country as a whole. If you say someone is from Italy, they may answer that they are from Siena, or name their own home city. In Siena, Tucci visits the city's old neighbourhoodsneighbourhood: the area around your home or a particular part of a town — 街区；社区；邻里, called contradascontrada: A historic district or ward of a town or city, especially in Italy — （意大利的）城区，街区, and each one believes its food is the best. In the north, the weather and the mountains shape what people eat. There you find dishes like polenta, which you almost never see in the south.
Tucci loves food, but he is also worried about it. He thinks people today have a broken relationship with eating. He talks about weight loss drugs: medications taken to reduce body weight — 减肥药 and the pressurepressure: The force produced by pressing against something, or the stress and worry caused by having too much to deal with. — 压力 to look a certain way. “We overthinkoverthink: to think or analyze too much — 过度思考；想太多 it,” he says, and the wish to look perfect has “really messedmess: (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin — 搞砸；弄乱 up” how we eat. He feels modern life pushes everything towards being the same: we “want everything to look the same, taste the same and be genericgeneric: Characteristic of or relating to a whole group or class; not specific or branded. — 通用的；一般的；非品牌的”. Tucci wants the opposite. He says we should celebrate the tomato or the onion that does not look perfect. He is also not a food fad: a short-lived eating trend — 流行食尚 / 饮食潮流 person, and he is sad that many people now treattreat: to behave towards someone in a certain way; to give medical care — 对待；治疗 food only as fuelfuel: A substance such as oil, gas, or coal that is burned to produce heat or energy. — 燃料 to fill the bellybelly: The stomach — 胃.
On a small island near Sardinia, Tucci meets a 92-year-old man called Tonino Bertoleoni. Tonino's family has owned the island since 1836, when his great-great-grandfather took the reins: took control or leadership — 接管 / 掌权. Their longlong: Lasting for a great amount of time — 长久的 story, and the meals they shared, stayed with him: remained memorable; left a lasting impression — 令他难忘 long after filmingfilming: The action of the verb to film — 拍摄；摄制 ended.
Near the end of our talk, Tucci lists some “crimes” against Italian food, and the writer agrees with all of them. No pineapple on pizza. No cream in a Carbonara. No crackingcrack: To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress — 敲开；用力弄碎 spaghettispaghetti: A type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings — 意面 before you cook it. And, please, no cappuccinocappuccino: An Italian coffee-based beverage made from espresso and milk that has been steamed and/or frothed — 卡布奇诺（咖啡） after dinner.
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
What does Tucci say is the biggest wrong idea about Italian food?
- 02
Why does Tucci say people's relationship with food is 'messed up'?
- 03
What does the story of Tonino Bertoleoni mainly show about Italian food culture?
- 04
Explain why Tucci thinks Italians often say they are from their region, not from Italy. Use one example from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words
- 05
Compare how Tucci sees a perfect tomato and how he sees a tomato that 'does not look perfect'. Why does this difference matter to him?
Suggested length: ~70 words
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
What does Tucci say is the biggest wrong idea about Italian food?
- 02
Why does Tucci say people's relationship with food is 'messed up'?
- 03
What does the story of Tonino Bertoleoni mainly show about Italian food culture?
- 04
Explain why Tucci thinks Italians often say they are from their region, not from Italy. Use one example from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words
- 05
Compare how Tucci sees a perfect tomato and how he sees a tomato that 'does not look perfect'. Why does this difference matter to him?
Suggested length: ~70 words